Trading in Pokemon Go Will Only Work Locally and Not Online

Being able to trade Pokemon, one of the biggest features in Pokemon GO that was advertised in the initial commercials, will be coming soon in an update later this year. The some-what bad news is that trading will only work with people that are near you, it won’t work over online. Our dreams of getting those region-specific Pokemon in our Pokedex are looking grim.

“Trading won’t be through the internet” Senior product manager, Tatsuo Nomura, told Polygon over at GDC this weekend. He continues, “You shouldn’t be able to exchange your Pokemon with someone who is 100 miles away from you. .. The person needs to be in you proximity.” Nomura and the development team over at Niantic strongly believe that Pokemon GO should be about going outside and exploring your surroundings, and meeting new people. If players were able to trade from the comfort of their own home, then it kinda ruins the whole experience, therefore making the location-based gameplay, obsolete; filling up the Pokedex would be way too easy.

With the recent addition of the second generation of Pokemon, Niantic is hoping to get player s back into the game. “We’re still trying to come up with an answer to trading that makes sense so it doesn’t kill the game,” Nomura said. “If we fail this, we can easily kill the game.”

How do you feel about the way trading is planned to work? Are you back on the Pokemon train after this recent update? Please let us know in the comments! We care.